Why does my rented movie need to reload after I hit paused for an hour?

Did you use AppleTV for anything else in the interim?

If the device went to sleep or if you accessed other content then that would be normal as the device does not have any storage. It is simply streaming the film, which can be easily flushed, as a result of the above, and need a reload.

The slow load time is due to to your internet connection.

In order for instant rentals you need:

8mbps for 1080P

6mbps for 720P

3mbps for SD

(you can change to SD in the settings)

bunganbob wrote:

Thanks!

thats exactly what we did, we used Foxtel to view something, then came back to the movie....but whooshka, it was gone and had to be reloaded!!

I think it's a poor design feature in all honesty.

AppleTV only has 8GB of solid state memory spread across all tasks - that would be enough to hold one HD movie temporarily in my view if the memory was managed better - a setting for those of us with slow connections to use the memory to retain a buffered rental at the expense of say importing screensaver photos would be handy.

As it is even minor things like watching a movie trailer can flush the portion already downloaded.

If you often keep your computer on (I do), then an alternative is to rent in itunes then the rental will be available in the Computers section listing your iTunes library under Rentals row when there is one in iTunes. The rental has to fully download to itunes but once there it stays until it expires without redownloading. Some titles may not be available in HD via itunes however due to teh bizarre restrictions of the movie studios.

AC

It because of a terrible design between itunes and atv

Incorrect, it has more to do with how ATV handles memory.

incorrect.

if the atv to itunes server link stayed active and had proper QOS established your would not need to reload.

atv could very easily keep the critical bits in memory getting the next critical bits to display is easy

movies are not new creation their bandwidth characterics are well known

the throughput between atv and itunes servers should be designed for the hardware limitiations of atv

Sorry I disagree, but in some ways you may be talking about the same thing.

AppleTV effectively downloads the whole movie to a large buffer and allows playback when it calculates the rest can follow as you watch without interrupting playback. This 'buffer' resides not in primary RAM but solid state storage.

Whether I call this a large buffer or a download is largely semantics, but the unit will effectively buffer the whole movie start to finish as you watch, allowing you to rewind quickly the protion already played on a slower connection.

The issue is that it flushes this downloaded portion/buffer quite unpredictably if you pause and do something else or finish and decide to watch again. Apple erroneosuly assume everyone has unlimited data plans and adequate bandwidth for instant playback, and this completely messes up the experience for those with slower connections - forcing the unit to reload the whole thing to that point just because you've paused and done something else is plain daft and incredibly wasteful of internet bandwidth, and potentially expensive for those on limited plans.

Streaming of iTunes content is not rate adaptive - the rentals/purchases are fixed size files.

When you say:

"atv could very easily keep the critical bits in memory getting the next critical bits to display is easy"

this is why I feel we may all be esssentially saying the same thing - it could keep the portion buffered alive but just loses it without warning, and unless watching another iTunes movie I would suggest quite without need.

AC

Wow! Just found this after trying to use my ATV for the first time. Am strongly considering returning the device now. I have a typical high speed connection for my area, and an HD movie takes 3.5 hours to download. If I want to download several, to have a "movie day", it makes sense to pre-download them. I've done this before using a computer. Without this ability, It'd take 10+ hours to watch two 2-hour movies...

Not really lovin' Apple right now!

burchard wrote:

I have a typical high speed connection for my area, and an HD movie takes 3.5 hours to download. If I want to download several, to have a "movie day", it makes sense to pre-download them.

Actually, with ApleTV 2/3 downloading several to th eunit in HD is probably the worst thing you could do.

Most HD movies are 3GB+, up to 6GB+ for some 1080p titles.

Given that ATV2/3 only have 8GB solid state memory for ALL tasks then having one HD download could easily leave no room for another (this 8GB will also presumably hold photos from the computer etc).

If you have 2 HD downloads pending they may simply compete for available space in that 8 GB and continually conflict/flush each other if their size exceeds the 8GB - what is in use limit.

Not sure this makes sense but if predownloading several do it via iTunes and Home Share via Computers.

That would be very cool, but unfotunately one cannot dowload a rental to your itunes on your computer and then watch it on the AppleTV (2nd or later generation).

THe only services that do something like that are:

vudu using a ps3

amazn using a tivo

Yes you can, you can stream it by using home sharing or airplay

I need to try via Home Sharing.

Airplay does not appear to be an option according to Apple at FAQs about renting movies from the iTunes Store

According to Apple: "You can't stream a rented movie from your computer to your AppleTV with Airplay..."

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Anyway, I really HOPE I am wrong, and look forward to trying via Home Sharing. That would be ideal.